Business owners tend to self-rationalize that most of their customers actually do complain when they’re unhappy. That’s just not true. If you think otherwise, you could be losing out on millions of dollars — regardless of what kind of business you’re running.

In fact, 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, 91% of those will simply leave and never come back. (According to another research by 1st Financial Training services)

The Consequences

First of all, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities to fix these customers’ issues and keep them as customers. These are also valuable opportunities to learn and improve your business to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.

Then, all these silent unhappy customers will probably complain to their friends, colleagues, family, spouse, husband and even worse: Online!

In today’s instant-access world, one unhappy customer can reach literally thousands of people online, sending their complaint about your company viral. Sadly, negative comments seem to be more contagious than positive ones.

Why customers leave without saying anything

Think about it. Why bother complaining if you think it won’t change anything?

Your customers probably feel like it’s a waste of time to provide feedback because you are simply not interested in hearing from them.

In most cases, it’s not even your fault. They might have developed this sort of apathy from their previous experiences when they have complained in the past but nothing was done about it.

In all cases, you should do something to change that!

Your Opportunity

Instead of hoping your customers will complain when something’s wrong and reacting to that, you need to be proactive and show them that you genuinely care about them!

In order to do so, you need to follow-up with them and ask questions. You should actively ask your customers if everything’s OK and ask if they have any feedback to help you improve.

There are many types of questions you can ask your clients to get their feedback, but some of the basic ones should include:

On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?

How would you rate your last experience with us?

If you could change one thing about our product/service, what would it be?

To wrap up, don’t just assume your customers will complain if they’re unhappy. You have to become proactive by following-up with them to make sure everything’s OK and to get their feedback.

While the truth is that the customer may not always be right, a customer issue is almost always a chance to improve your business.

Furthermore, research finds that customers’ whose complaints are handled quickly can often turn into loyal customers and even brand advocates.

Looking for a tool to help you be proactive?

We’ve built a modern software called InputKit to help businesses be proactive. It automatically follows up with your customers to make sure everything’s OK and to ask for feedback to help you improve your business.